


Resident Expert

by MollyC



Category: Star Trek - Various Authors, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Deep Space Nine - Freeform, Episode: s06e19 In The Pale Moonlight, Gen, Rihannsu, Technically reboot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 20:24:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4151631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MollyC/pseuds/MollyC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young officer, a mysterious message, and a puzzle</p>
            </blockquote>





	Resident Expert

Irreid liked third shift. It was almost always quiet, and _erei’Riov_ t’Daedkh did not mind if he worked on personal projects as long as his assignments got done. And in their third month of patrolling the Outmarches, doing nothing more interesting than shadowing whichever ship the _Lloann’nar_ had on their side of the border this tenday, his assignments tended to be sparse.

Thus it was that he was chest-deep in his code for a new battle simulator for the entertainment market when he reached for his cup of _khret_ and found his hand colliding with a person’s side instead. He pulled his hand back with an undignified gasp and turned to see who he’d just insulted.

 _Khre’Riov_ t’Rllaillieu was looking down at him with an amused expression. She was not, it had to be admitted, looking very _far_ down; Irreid was tall and the Commander was not, and even though he was sitting her chin cleared his head by no more than an _eviolh_ or two. Not that he minded; if she were taller he might have hit below the hem of her uniform, which did not bear thinking of. Irreid shook his head in an effort to dislodge the irrelevant thought and stuttered, “My apologies, _khre’Riov_ , I didn’t know you were there!”

“So I assumed, _erein_ ,” she replied, in a solemn tone that sorted oddly with the way her eyes were smiling. Irreid sat up straight, clamping down hard on the urge to flick his screen away from his personal project; he had permission, there was nothing to hide. But he felt the blood rising in his cheeks anyway. “How may I serve, _khre'Riov?_ ”

The Commander's amusement vanished as if it had never been. She reached out one hand to swivel the empty chair beside Irreid's and sat in it, heavily. “I have an assignment for you, _erein_ , and I fear it may touch your honor closely.”

Irreid said cautiously, “I always seek to perform my duties to the best of my ability.”

“I do not doubt that,” said the Commander seriously. “Nonetheless, before I speak further I must have your oath that you will not speak of this matter without leave.” Irreid stared at her. “If you're asked you may say that you are working on something for me, but no more, and you may direct persistent questioners to me. Will that be acceptable to you?”

He took a moment to think it through; the giving of one's oath was not to be taken lightly. But Irreid had always been curious, and this was a mystery too intriguing to be missed. “I give you my name's word that I will speak only as you have said,” he said.

The Commander nodded and drew a data solid from one of her pockets. Irreid glanced at the door to the tiny cryptology lab they occupied and was relieved to discover the green light that meant it was locked. “This recording reached us only by chance,” the Commander said. “Watch it without judgement, as far as you are able.” The cryptology computers were isolated from ship’s systems as a matter of course, so Irreid didn’t try to stop her as she snapped the solid into the reader socket.

The image, when it appeared, was terrible, full of the blank spots of a bad transmission, but Irreid could make out a Warbird’s battle-bridge over the shoulder of the subcommander leaning into the comm station like she was using it to hold herself up.

“—our attempts to surrender,” the woman was saying, even as she turned square into the vid pickup. The movement revealed a burn that covered one eye and half her cheek, vivid, painful green that made Irreid wince. Something had blown up in her face, that much was clear, and from the sounds behind her it had been most of the bridge. “They say we would not offer quarter and so should not expect it.” She sounded bizarrely calm.

From behind her came a man’s voice, high with fear but steady despite it. “ _Erei’Riov_ , they’re coming around again. They’re locking on. We have no shields. If they fire—”

“ _Ie_ ,” the subcommander said sharply. The image fuzzed out entirely and then snapped back to focus, a little better than before. “The captain claims to be acting under secret orders, but I think his Vulcan is _mad_. The _Enterprise_ , any ship that receives this, beware the _Enterprise_.” Irreid felt his eyes widen in surprise as the subcommander said, “Avenge us.” She pushed herself away from the comm console and staggered, making for the command chair at a pace that made it clear she had wounds the pickup didn’t reveal.

“ _Enterprise_ is firing—” the man said, and just as the subcommander reached the center chair the playback washed over in white, and then black.

Irreid sat still for several moments, his eyes fixed on the replay prompt on the screen. Finally he exhaled, trying to steady himself against the wash of fury. “This is war,” he said, when he could say it calmly. “The _Enterprise_ is the flagship of their fleet! They cannot claim it’s the act of a madman. To kill a ship that’s offering surrender, even the _Lloann’nar_ have more honor than that.”

“Yes, they do,” the Commander said. “And I have dealt with the _Enterprise_ before, _erein_ , and I think that we are deceived.”

Irreid blinked. She went on, “The monitor buoy dumped the transmission to us as soon as we queried it, but the message had been waiting for most of a tenday; comms cannot tell me yet which way we must go to retrieve...what may be left. By the time we reach the wreck, it will be far too late to find exhaust trails or other traces that will tell us what truly happened. So before we plunge the Empire into war, I must know if this recording is correct.”

“You believe it was falsified,” Irreid said, wondering.

“I hope it was falsified,” said the Commander grimly. “For if it wasn’t, we will go to war, and against the Federation we cannot hope to win. I would not spend my life in such a war, if it can be avoided.” She slumped back in her chair, which was not made for such things, and sighed. “If the Federation has done this thing, it will be _mnhei’sahe_ to fight them no matter the cost—but I think they have not.”

Irreid swallowed, and nodded. “I will find the truth of this, _khre’Riov_.”

“See that you do.”

* * *

Irreid’s grandmother had always said that his element was Water. “More stubborn than Earth, in its way,” she’d told him once, half-exasperated at some bit of mischief he could not now recall. “Earth will not be moved, no, but Water—Water always finds a way in.” He didn’t mind; in his opinion, that quality was what made him so good at his job. It was all very well to batter at something like an earthquake or wait for a breath of inspiration, but what defeated the majority of cryptological puzzles was the careful, patient prying into the tiny weaknesses of a cipher protocol, one at a time, like a stream undermining a foundation until the edifice collapsed under its own weight. Often enough he didn’t even know what told him where the weaknesses were; he just felt around in the dark until something shifted and he could bring pressure to bear on it.

In the case of the Commander’s recording, what made him suspicious was the sudden improvement in image quality just before the subcommander (t’Mnerrian, of the _Pauldron_ , and Irreid planned to speak her name and all her shipmates’ to the Elements, when next he had the chance) spoke of the Starfleet captain. He couldn’t have named the scent, but there was something about the image before versus after that irritated him like the invisible hair from a stinging _lhent_ ’s stem lodged in his skin.

Fourteen hours into his analysis, Irreid sat staring at two still images, one from each side of the discontinuity. He could not quite understand what was wrong with the second one. He tried to be Water, to let his understanding seep into the cracks. His grandmother would have said that _trying_ to be Water was missing the point, but it often worked for him. He pursed his lips, and on impulse punched the keyboard to bring up one of his oldest programs. He’d written it early in his progress through the Academy, and refined it since.

The program took the two images and chewed on them thoughtfully for a few seconds, then requested more input. Irreid gave it access to the rest of the recording, wishing for the cryptology computers instead of a general-purpose console. He was working in one of the library cubicles, since he could not very well take over the crypto lab when there was ship’s business at hand, even with the Commander’s imprimatur on his project; it meant he didn’t have quite the array of specialized tools he would have liked.

His program churned again, for longer this time, comparing portions of the recording to each other. When the analysis ended, it presented him with a graph, colored lines in complex interplay. Irreid looked at them and there it was, the first crack in the foundation.

Slowly, he began to smile.

* * *

 It felt a little awkward, visiting the Commander’s quarters late in ship’s evening; Irreid’s first assignment had been to a cruiser whose commander had carried on a series of not-very-subtle affairs with various crewmembers, and he could still raise a flush by remembering running into one of them in the corridor, disheveled and smug. No one had been _coerced_ , so Command had turned a blind eye to the whole thing, but it had still been uncomfortable and he did not like to present a similar appearance. But _khre’Riov_ t’Rllaillieu had requested his results as soon as he had them, and in person, so he steeled himself to press the door chime.

“ _Enter_ ,” the intercom told him, and he did.

The Commander was sitting at her desk, no longer in uniform; first shift was hours past. She waited until the door hissed closed behind him to ask, “Well, _erein_?”

Irreid held up the data solid, to which he’d added his detailed analysis, and said bluntly, “ _Khre’Riov_ , it’s a fake.”

He did not think he was imagining the way her shoulders sagged, but she fixed him with a cool, dark stare. “You must be absolutely certain.”

“I am,” Irreid said. “The beginning is legitimate, but the section in which t’Mnerrian names the attacker has been altered. The discrepancies are small, very subtle indeed. I almost didn’t catch them. But once they’re seen, they are indisputable.” The Commander nodded, and he went on, “I cannot tell you what she said originally. That data is irretrievable beneath the changes.”

 _Khre’Riov_ t’Rllaillieu nodded again, more thoughtful this time. “Very well,” she said. “Prepare a dispatch for Command, but use a cipher the Federation is known to have broken. I think it’s only fair that they should know how their honor has been impugned. Once that’s done, I think you shall have a shift to rest—I’ll speak to the Subcommander. And recommend you for a commendation.”

Irreid blinked, and the Commander smiled at him. “You have prevented a hopeless war, _Erein_ tr’Vrinakh, I think it’s more than earned.”

“Thank you, _khre’Riov_ ,” Irreid said, and paused. The Commander raised an eyebrow questioningly. “What do you think Command will have us do?” he asked.

Irreid had occasionally heard some of the older crew refer to the Commander as _susse-thrai_ , and the way her smile changed at the question made the byname make a great deal more sense. “I think we’ll be going hunting,” she said. “And we shall see whether we or the Federation find them first.”

**Author's Note:**

> So technically this is related to ["Amends"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/837851), and thus reboot-fic, but I don't think you need to know that to have it make sense. What you do need is to go read the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane, if you haven't already!
> 
> And yes, the whole point of the darn thing was to have the [Vreenak joke](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qKcJF4fOPs). What can I say? It helps that /vri'nak/ fits Rihannsu phonotactics quite well.


End file.
